There’s no question that rodeo is a generational sport, but how deep does that standard run? As it turns out, it breaches even the far corners of the rodeo office.
When Jennie Murray takes her place as assistant secretary for the 2021 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, she will be the third generation in her immediate family to hold this position. But it won’t actually be the first time she’ll be making history at the Thomas & Mack.
“When Jennie kept time at the finals in 2005, she was the third generation in our family to do so,” said her mom, Vickie Shireman. “There’s never been a third-generation timer before, until Jennie.”
Like most rodeo legacies, it all started when someone fell in love with a cowboy. Una Beutler was raised with eight siblings, four of which were brothers who all dabbled in rodeo. She traveled to rodeos with her brothers and eventually stock contractors started asking her to keep time for them. And the rest, as they say, is history.
“When mom (Una) married my dad, Jiggs Beutler, she started secretarying all the Beutler rodeos,” Vickie said. “Rodeo was our way of life, so I was just born into it.”
Raising and hauling rodeo stock since 1929, the Beutler family has known little else. Vickie’s grandad, Elra, was one of the original Beutlers who started in the stock contracting business. In the early 50s, that same grandad started Beutler & Son Rodeo Co. with Jiggs.
“I got my timer’s card when I was 16 and then a couple years later, I got my secretary card,” said Vickie who will be completing her 50th year as a rodeo secretary in 2021. “As a kid, my sister (Dollie) and I grew up in the rodeo office with my mom because she was the secretary for my dad.”
As both girls got older, they started helping their mom in the rodeo office. They quickly absorbed everything they needed to know about the job from the unsung expert, Una.
Time Stands Still
Just like her mom before her, Jennie spent every summer in the rodeo office as Vickie’s unofficial assistant secretary. Both Vickie and Jennie loved spending their entire summer on the rodeo trail. And now, Jennie is doing the same with her three girls – Josie, 15, Dacie, 12, and Carlie, 8.
“It’s super sweet that the girls get to go on the road, and that they get to experience the same things that I did when I was kid,” said Jennie who, just like her grandma Una, married a rodeo cowboy.
Naturally, Jennie met Dustin Murray at a rodeo she was working with her mom. At the time, Dustin was riding bareback horses for Southwestern Oklahoma State University with his eye on the PRCA circuit.
Also attending Southwestern at the time, Jennie was pursuing a marketing degree while running for the cross-country team. She was still spending her summers on the road with her mom, which was ultimately building her career as a secretary and timer.
“After Dustin and I got married in 2002, then I started working rodeos that he was entered in,” Jennie said. “Scotty Lovelace eventually hired Dustin and taught him the production side of rodeo and he hired me as a timer.”
Scotty sold Classic Pro Rodeo in 2013 and just two years later, Dustin launched Hi Lo ProRodeo. The Murrays were back on the rodeo trail, along with their three girls.
“We visit these cities once a year, but these people all become like family,” Jennie said. “And they really love our girls well, no matter where we are. They have become our rodeo family.”
That rodeo family transcends time itself as multiple generations continue to cross paths at the same events year after year.
“I still go to rodeos that I enjoyed as a kid, but now I get to take my granddaughters,” Vickie said. “It’s neat to go back to those places because of the people there who I’ve known my whole life.”
Generation Two
“There was no PROCOM back when my mom was a secretary, so cowboys had to call in and enter the day before a rodeo,” Vickie said of her days spent in the rodeo office with her mom and sister.
Although both Vickie and Dollie have worked in the rodeo office for the last 50 years, they also dabbled in trick riding in the 70s.
“JW Stoker was a world champion trick rider and roper, and he was halfway kin to us,” Vickie said. “JW was in Burwell (Nebraska) every year and my sister really enjoyed the trick riding. We were probably 12 or 13 when she told my dad she wanted to learn.”
That following winter JW stayed with the Beutler’s for two weeks teaching Vickie, Dollie and their brother, Bennie, how to trick ride.
“My sister kept at it, but I realized I didn’t care for it too much,” Vickie said. “I was probably 20 when my dad decided he wanted to have trick riding at all his rodeos. I did it for a couple of years, but after I broke my back, I stayed in the office.”
Dollie has also worked at the NFR, first as a timer and most recently as assistant secretary in 2017 and 2018. But it was Una who got the family started at the NFR in 1972, when it was still in Oklahoma City.
Nineteen years later, Vickie was selected as the assistant secretary and the following year she was the secretary, 20 years after her mom. And now 30 years after Vickie’s first trip to the NFR, Jennie will be the assistant secretary.
Vegas or Bust
Vickie learned everything she knows about working in the rodeo office from her mom. And she passed that knowledge down to Jennie.
“Back when Jennie was about to get her card as a PRCA secretary, you had to go through a school beforehand,” Vickie explained. “We got special permission from the PRCA office so that I could teach Jennie and my niece, Melissa Nevarre.”
A majority of the information passed through the NFR office in the last 40 years has gone through the hands of a Beutler relative. Vickie is continuing her reign as office manager in 2021.
“This will mark my 26th trip to the NFR as either a secretary, timer or the office manager,” Vickie said. “This will be my 16th year as the office manager. I really enjoy each position, so I don’t have a favorite.”
Like most of rodeo nation, Vickie is excited to see the NFR back in Vegas. Even a month before the event she said the anticipation was tangible among personnel and contestants alike. Working alongside Jennie again is what Vickie is looking forward to most about this year’s event.
Both Dustin and Jennie will have their hands full while in Vegas. Jennie will be learning the finer details of what it takes to be the NFR’s assistant secretary. And Dustin will wrangle the 10 head of Hi Lo ProRodeo horses selected for the bareback and saddle bronc.
“I’m not looking forward to being away from my girls for two weeks, but I am excited about the job itself and everything I’m going to learn from it,” Jennie said. “I’m always wanting to progress as a rodeo secretary and applying to work at the NFR was a surefire way to do just that.”
In years past, Jennie refrained from applying to work at the NFR because she was needed at home as a mom. Now that her girls are more self-sufficient, she felt like it was the right time to apply for the biggest rodeo in the world.
“I really don’t have a favorite rodeo to work, being at the NFR and the RNCFR have definitely been highlights for me,” Jennie said. “But my favorite events are the times when my family is all together.”
Just like Una, rodeo was and is everything that Vickie and Jennie have known all their lives. Perhaps they’ve already started training the next generation of great timers and secretaries without even knowing it. Only time will tell if the Beutler legacy Una began will continue with the next generation.
